An honest account of an Australian expat's life in a new land far, far away...

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Thank goodness for linens

I leave two weeks tomorrow and packing has begun in earnest, thanks to linens. After my last blog, I got down to business by getting some good boxes, and figuring out where to start – linens. They’re easy to pack. So once I made the start, I’ve continued to pack most days since then. Except, er, I can’t pack at the moment; I’m typing this by candlelight as my power, rarely enough, has gone out.

My spare room that looks like a bomb's hit it -
full of packing boxes

It’s quite hard to know what to pack. I keep asking myself questions such as, am I going to need that ball dress I haven’t worn in four years? Is it worth me taking the rice cooker if it’s the wrong power plug type? (The answers are no and yes, respectively – the latter can use an European adapter thanks to Sharon and Brian!) The main question I ask though is will I have enough room for all of this? I have visions of a tiny apartment and boxes of linens, kitchenware, books and clothes and nowhere to put them. (Ooh! Power back on!) But I guess that's something that we'll have to work out when we get there.

Aside from linens, I’ve also packed books. Very important, those. I buy books like other women buy shoes, and I have two large IKEA Billy bookcases full of them. Unfortunately, I had to be rather selective as books can literally weigh a ton. I’m not able to lift up even just the small box I’ve packed. Oh, and of course, I’ve already realised that I needed to look something up in one of my cookbooks – which I packed first and is therefore at the very bottom of the box. It’s Murphy’s Law.

My books - a VIB; a Very Important Box

There’s something to be said about being in the opposite hemisphere to the rest of the world; while it’s summer here, it means that I can pack all of my winter clothes straight away, and barring any freakishly cold day (not likely at the moment – it'll be 33oC tomorrow), I won’t need them.

Packing will continue right up until the moment I leave. My husband, who we’ll give the pseudonym of Emperor D, will join me a week later, and I’ll leave it up to him to pack those things that have to wait until the last minute, and properly seal, label and deliver all the boxes without any mishap. Only two weeks to go – I still can’t quite believe it!

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About Me

I'm a 30-something Australian who lives near Geneva, Switzerland, works for a well-known medical NGO and who loves to cook and travel.
Read about my (very different) journeys on both through my blogs The Empress eats
and The Empress exported.
Find out why I'm called the Empress here.
Follow me on Twitter: @empress_jo